CHAPTER 21: Second Chances

Silver and Blaze were looking over an all too familiar landscape: their home, if one could call it home. They could scarcely believe that it had been a few days since they left here, under the task to destroy the Iblis Trigger...now they are back under a new task. Destroy Iblis once and for all, but in a different way.

"Looks like we have our work cut out for us..." Silver said, and then smiled. "Not that we didn't before."

Blaze looked at Silver. "Silver...you've changed since we went back in time."

Silver looked at Blaze. "Maybe I have...being back in that time showed me a few things: what our time could be...and what it can be, sometimes things aren't always black and white, and by what sacrifice some must give to get what is needed."

Blaze felt warm in her heart, and not from her internal infernos, but a gentle warmth. Silver was growing up. She didn't realize it, but she was growing rather fond of Silver.

"The annoying part is," Silver continued. "to find one of those Chaos Emeralds." Silver scanned the apocalyptic landscape again. "What's worse is Sonic's idea. Oh, trust me, it's a good idea...but I have no clue how I'm going to pull off a Chaos Summon. I barely have a handle on Chaos Control!"

"I don't think you'll have much choice in the matter, Silver," said a voice from behind.

Silver and Blaze spun around, poised to battle this newcomer; but when Silver laid eyes on the stranger, he found him anything but not one. "You!"

The stranger sniffed. "Hmph, I see you still remember me...despite it being nearly two-hundred years." The stranger looked at Blaze whom also recognized the stranger.

"Indeed...Viper," Blaze said.

Sure enough, it was Viper. Not fresh as the two remembered him, but in worse shape than before. Viper's hair was longer and bleached in places, so it took more of a sandy color, but patches of dark hair were visible underneath. He now had facial hair covering a good portion of his face, and Silver thought it made him look older. Silver quickly noticed the robotic arm that Viper was sporting on his left arm. "What happened to your arm?"

Viper looked at Silver, and heaved a sigh. Silver could tell that Viper did not relish the yarn behind the bionic arm. "Don't we have something more pressing to worry about?" He said coldly.

Blaze stepped in. "Indeed we do." Blaze looked at Silver, who didn't return the look. He was kicking himself for letting himself get distracted. "But first, how did you know to look for us?"

"You've been gone for a few days," Viper replied. "or more accurately, a little raccoon told me."

Viper looked over his shoulder and downwards, and Blaze and Silver leaned over to see what Viper was looking at. Peeping behind Viper was a young she-raccoon, roughly around Silver's age. She was brown-furred and her hair was sported in pig-tails. She wore tattered earthen-colored clothes.

"Marine?" Silver asked. "What are you doing out here?"

The raccoon, dubbed Marine, addressed Silver and Blaze. "I know, mates, but the others at the compound were more worried than a wallaby in dingo territory, so I 'ad to check out to see if you mates were spiffy, you see…Oi, where'd you mates go anyway?"

"Long story, Marine," Silver said. "And we don't have time to talk about it now…"

"Oh, cobblers," sighed the raccoon.

"Marine," Blaze said. "We need you to get everyone out of the city."

"Wha'?" exclaimed Marine. "Why?"

Silver stepped in. "We have a plan to take down Iblis once and for all, but we don't know how big the battle will be…we don't want anyone caught in the crossfire." Silver looked really somber.

Marine looked at Silver, and then nodded. "Gotcha, Silv. I'll clear 'em all out. Happy trails!" Marine waved as she took off back to the compound.

All three watched her go. "That's one thing taken care of," Silver breathed.

Viper looked over the landscape, and finished, "and still so much more to take care of."

"And not much time to do it," Blaze said. "Iblis could reform at any time. We need to find a Chaos Emerald, quickly."

"Then let's get a move on," Viper said, straightening out his overcoat.

"You're helping us?" Silver said.

"The more the merrier," Viper said matter-of-factly, turning his back to the two. "Also, Iblis and I have a score to settle."

Silver and Blaze looked at each other, after hearing Viper's voice drop down to a deadly undertone, neither ventured to add to it.

"We'll need to split up," Blaze said. "Cover more ground—"

"We won't need to," Viper said suddenly.

Silver and Blaze looked at Viper. "What?" Silver asked. "Why!?"

Viper heaved a sigh, running his left hand through his hair. "Because I have one."

"Really!? Where!? Why didn't you say so before!?" Silver wasn't angry, but excited.

Damn this kid, Viper thought. "I keep it with my stockpile. Follow me."

Viper began trudging his way through the ruins, Silver followed like a child coming home from his first day of school. Blaze lingered for a second, looking at Viper. Was he crying? Blaze thought. She followed soon after, and she wasn't sure…but she wondered if she had misjudged Viper before.

It was nearly an hour before Viper reached his stockpile, nestled in a corner of a wrecked warehouse near the edge of the city. The stockpile itself was buried deep in a dangerous maze of I-beams, metal-roofing and broken glass, but the three managed with great care to get to the other end with minimal injuries, merely just small isolated cuts.

The stockpile was very modest; various firearms lined the wall, a couple of swords as well, but none nearly as magnificent as the one Viper carried over his back, which despite two-hundred years of use, the blade still gleamed in the light. The objects of interest were on a shelf to the side, which contained curious objects unlike the rest: a gadget that looked like a glorified stopwatch, a gold-colored bracelet band stained with blood, a wrist communicator, smashed beyond use…at the end sat the Yellow Chaos Emerald, still flawless and shining bright as it was the day of its creation.

Viper lingered as he picked it up with his right hand, while his left stroked the bracelet. Viper breathed shallowly. There was an ugly tale regarding the condition of it…

In his mind, he could hear an oily voice of someone very familiar: "I will not submit to them, Viper! I am innocent of releasing that demon!"

"That's why I'm here, idiot!" Viper's own voice said in his head. "I'm not here just for them, I'm here for me! Can't you get that through your head, Shadow!? You of all people should know that reason."

"There is only one reason you would do anything, Viper: Because it pads your wallet."

Viper physically winced as his mind's eye continued the story. "Shadow, all you have to do is answer some questions! Don't make this harder than it already is, damn it!"

"You should know what will happen," Shadow snarled. "It will be a repeat of Prison Island. I will not be imprisoned. I would KILL before I become imprisoned!"

"Don't make me do this, Shadow! There's a lot of evidence against you: eyewitnesses, photographs, the list is two miles long! You also survived the first wave! Everyone else is gone, Shadow! Rouge, Sonic, Knuckles…they all went to fight Iblis on the other side of the world…and they were all wiped out! The fact you remain is suspicious enough! You can prove them wrong!"

"You know that won't happen! Once these foolish humans get an idea into their head, they cannot bear reason. As you see, we are now hard at it. And to think we were allies."

"It seems so… I should let you know that I was authorized to use lethal force if necessary. I was hoping you'd cooperate…but I will do what I must…"

"You will try…I killed you once," Shadow said. "I can do it again!"

Viper's mind flashed forward to quite some time later, when he was digging through the ruins of the old Soleannan laboratories, caved in when Iblis blasted through Soleanna finally, and when Viper came to the place where Shadow was imprisoned…and found the crushed bloodied tank…

Viper came back into the real world, and he felt that he had zoned out for quite some time. He also found himself sunken to his knees, and that tears was streaming down his face. His long departed step-father once said to him that to cry was one part of being human, despite Viper being of a different species.

Viper for nearly two-hundred years had blamed himself for Shadow's death, for it was his own fault that Shadow had to be sealed away again…and would be killed while still imprisoned. Shadow was right that it would happen, but Viper was blind…and for that, Shadow suffered…and the shell of a homunculus that stood there, grieving for nearly two-hundred years.

As he slowly recollected himself, he noticed that the Chaos Emerald had dropped from his hand.
He looked for it and also realized that Silver and Blaze had disappeared from behind him. They probably took the Emerald after he had dropped it. Looking around, he caught no glimpse of the hedgehog and cat, but if he wasn't just hearing things he could hear them outside.

Silver and Blaze were in fact right outside. Blaze had sensed Viper's emotional state from behind, and once Viper dropped the Chaos Emerald, she bade Silver to go outside, and Blaze would follow quickly. So they did, leaving Viper to his privacy. While outside, Silver kept changing hands with the Yellow Chaos Emerald, wondering how in the world he could summon the other six Chaos Emeralds with it.

"Chaos Control was simple enough, but how in the world am I supposed to summon the others with it?" Silver would often say.

Blaze didn't really have an answer. She had no knowledge on how to use a Chaos Emerald any more then Silver did, if any. Silver somehow had bungled his way into learning Chaos Control, but besides that, he knew nothing else.

Blaze decided to analyze the situation logically. "Well, how can you use Chaos Control?"

Silver looked at Blaze, then back at the Chaos Emerald. "Well…uh…" Silver started to explain, but somehow he couldn't. He just…felt it. Shadow had described Chaos Control as a manipulation of time and space, but how can one feel that? He could feel the power of the Chaos Emerald in his fingertips, creeping up his arm like the natural blood flow in his veins, but it felt all the same. "I don't know…"

"It's rather simple," said a voice. Silver and Blaze turned to see that Viper had re-emerged from the building. Both could see a distinct lightening on his face where tears had washed away some of the dirt, but neither mentioned it. "You feel the power of the Chaos Emerald, correct?"

"Yeah," Silver said hesitantly.

Viper closed his eyes, and pursed his lips. "You'd better be sure, Silver, or else this will take all day, if not all night."

Silver firmed up slightly. "Yeah, I do."

"The Chaos Emeralds read the minds and hearts of their wielders, good or evil. If you want to stop time briefly or teleport, you tell the Chaos Emerald to do so. However, summoning is a little more difficult. It's like a reverse Chaos Control, where instead you go to the location, you make the object you locate come to you."

"It sounds simple enough though," Silver said.

"In concept, yes," Viper said, but then his tone darkened, "but there's a catch. The only way you can summon is to see where it sits."

Silver blinked. "But that means I need to know where the Chaos Emeralds are! Man, this was a waste of time."

"It would be easier, but there is another way," Viper said. "But I have to warn you…it can be dangerous."

"How dangerous?" Blaze cut in.

"Very, for it will open Silver's mind to the Chaos Emerald…unrestrained." Viper looked at Silver. "It's called Chaos Vision. You look deep into the Chaos Emerald's and open yourself to its power. You must concentrate throughout the entire ordeal; otherwise the Chaos Emerald will cook your mind. When you're in the Chaos Emerald, command it firmly to show you the target. Once you got it, disengage immediately before the Chaos Emerald has a chance to rebound."

Silver gulped.

"I know, it's very dangerous, maybe even lethal…" Viper heaved a sigh, and continued, "but it is the quickest way. You do have one safeguard though..."

Silver looked at Viper. "What?"

"We can break your eye-contact with the Chaos Emerald if we see something going wrong. It's not fool-proof, but it's the best thing available."

Silver looked at Blaze, who nodded in support. Silver nodded back to Viper. "Ok, I'll give it a shot. I know what the Chaos Emeralds look like, but what are the other colors?"

"Blue, light blue, green, white, red and purple," Viper recited. He apparently had seen the Emeralds a lot in his lifetime.

Silver nodded, and then looked deeply into the Emerald. Deeper and deeper he looked, until the glow practically swallowed up his vision. He felt nothing so far, and his eyes were starting to feel dry. It was then he realized he hadn't blinked in a while. Blinking, he kept going. Something in the back of his mind pricked him into feeling ridiculous, since dumbly looking into an Emerald would look rather stupid to any onlooker. His thoughts moved on to Iblis, and what Silver would have to do when he finally defeated Iblis for good, and if they couldn't kill him like before, and it would be just like before…there was another way…

Suddenly, something in his brain clicked, and the Chaos Emerald looked like it was a blazing inferno inside, laced with orange and yellowish flames. This must be Chaos Vision! Silver quickly commanded firmly, "Show me the…" Silver ran through the remaining colors, and picked one randomly. "…the Red Chaos Emerald!" Instantly, an image emerged from the wild flames, like a picture with flames for a frame. Silver saw what used to be a coastline, but the water was now dirty and putrid, the coast lined with skeletons and corpses of dead fish. Near the coast was a mass of wreckage. The vision quickly flew inside the wreckage like a crazy roller-coaster, and it nearly upset Silver's equilibrium. It suddenly halted to show two Chaos Emeralds. Silver immediate forgot his motion-discomfort, and felt that he hit the jackpot. Two Chaos Emeralds: one red and one blue! Silver was so elated that he forgot one very important thing…until it was too late. Suddenly, the red one flashed, and instead of the Chaos Emeralds, he was starting straight into Iblis' burning maw. Silver couldn't help but scream, and it saved him. Iblis was about to swallow him.

Suddenly, he fell over backwards onto the hard concrete remains of the streets of Soleanna. Panting, he opened his eyes and looked to see that Viper had taken the Chaos Emerald out of his hands. The breaking of the eye-contact was alone to send Silver reeling. Blaze was already looking at Silver with a poorly-masked concerned expression. "Are you all right?" Blaze asked.

"Yeah…" Silver breathed. "I think so."

"Rookie mistake," Viper said. "You have to be quick to see the location, and then quickly break your eye-contact. For the sake of curiosity…what did you see?" Viper leaned against the ruined walls of the warehouse.

"Iblis," Silver said, but then added. "Up close…real up close…" Silver couldn't bring himself to say "in his mouth."

Viper stroked his chin in thought. "Chaos Vision often doubles as glimpses of one mere thread out of the millions of potential futures, and usually, they are never pleasant. Sometimes Chaos Vision shows the past, or what's in our thoughts and hearts deeply. That's why it's so dangerous: because Chaos Vision can show you the things that can hurt you more than Iblis could ever hope to deal on you."

Silver couldn't help but agree. Chaos Vision rattled him to the core…and he still had to keep doing it several more times. "Well…on the bright side, I was able to see the Chaos Emeralds. In fact, two of them are together, so I was able to see both of them."

Viper smiled. "Hmph, well that simplifies things some."

Moments later, after Silver had time to breathe, he took up the Chaos Emerald again and now was going to try Chaos Summon. Viper said it worked similar to Chaos Control, but reversed. Focusing on and object or person, instead of the location, would bring the object or person to him. Focusing on the location would cause the teleport of the use, called Chaos Control (Viper added later, sometimes called Chaos Relocate.). In truth, Chaos Summon was Chaos Control, but to make things easier, Chaos Summon was the term used to differentiate between the two.

Silver concentrated with the Chaos Emerald in hand, and in his mind's eye, he focused on the Red Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Summon!" There was a red flash of light to Silver's right. When it faded, the Red Chaos Emerald was floating in the air. Silver sighed with relief. Now that wasn't too hard…

The Red Chaos Emerald slowly descended downwards. Blaze caught it as it descended, and Viper looked at Blaze, briefly amazed, but quickly relaxed. Viper knew that the Red Chaos Emerald would severely burn anyone it touches typically as fire was its elemental force, but if the user's special power was fire-based then the Emerald's heat wouldn't do anything. In fact, the Red Chaos Emerald was probably at home with Blaze. Viper was distracted again when Silver successfully summoned the Blue Chaos Emerald. Blaze made to catch it too, but upon touching it, she dropped it promptly as if it was a live snake. "It's wet!" she cried out. Viper had to smile; the Blue Chaos Emerald's elemental force was water; he guess that Blaze and water didn't agree with each other. Viper picked it up instead, keeping his thoughts to himself.

"That leaves four more, Silver," Viper said. "Once we get those, we strike for the north towards Kingdom Valley. There, the gate to Iblis' lair sits…the Gate of Pandora."

- - - - -

Sonic shot out of a portal and into the bright sunlight of a warm summer afternoon. Regaining his balance, he looked around to see where he was. Quickly, he surmised that he had arrived in the New Town Clock Square. Almost on cue, the large ancient clock began to toll. Sonic looked up at it, and could see it was telling the noon hour had just begun. The time was correct, but what about the day? Sonic looked for a newspaper stand, trying to suppress the building sense of déjà vu that was welling up inside him. Yep, it was the right day.

"Well, that's a relief," Sonic said aloud to himself. He got his second chance. "Now, I need to juice for the labs, pronto!"

Quickly, Sonic replayed the conversations that occurred earlier that afternoon—or later that day as Sonic thought with an inward smile—the same conversation regarding the labs that was the hot topic among the consumption of many a cold milkshake. The labs, now abandoned, were located deep under the island of Castle Town, just across the bridge. Thanks to the intel of the Chaotix, there was a door inside the castle itself that led straight down into it, in the vaults of the castle.

Sonic rubbed his chin, wishing that he hadn't left the holo-chip with Tails when he took off to on that failed attempt to rescue Elise, but he couldn't help it now. Breaking in was the only option, which wasn't a big deal to him; for four years of his life, he had broken into various buildings of old Robotropolis before it had been destroyed by the Overlander military over six years before. Not to mention, Sonic had broken into different bases of Dr. Robotnik. Breaking into a castle shouldn't be a big deal.

Sonic juiced towards the castle, keeping in mind that somewhere in this city were Tails, Amy and Knuckles, and he sincerely hoped he wouldn't run into them. After all, earlier that day he ran off on them to go to the same place. Who knows? They might have followed him there. There was no telling. Just the same, he would keep an eye out.

Nothing happened during the run to the castle, thankfully, and as he drew near, he was already hatching ideas on how to get into the castle. One crazy idea he got was to simply ask about the secret labs. He was sure that there was a "need to know" basis on the location or even knowledge of the lab's existence, but if he said that Dr. Kintobor might be hiding down there, maybe they'll let them in…if anyone at the castle knew where the door was. It's worth a shot, Sonic figured, and if they don't let me in, I can always go the hard way.

Sonic came to the front gate and knocked. If Sonic was correct, he had shown up roughly four hours after he showed up here last time. The gatekeeper would more than likely notice and obviously inquire on this. Sonic only had a moment to make up a lie.

The gatekeeper leaned out, a young man, probably in his mid-twenties garbed in the tradition dark green uniform of the guards. "Sonic? What are you doing here…and without our Princess?"

"Kintobor took him to another location," Sonic said quickly. "I need to talk to the steward about this location. I don't know much about it, and need to know a few things about it. It won't take long."

The gatekeeper nodded. If Sonic was just like any other citizen of Soleanna, the gatekeeper wouldn't let him or her in unless specifically commanded to do so by his superiors, but these were exceptional circumstances, plus Sonic had rescued the Princess twice by this point. The gatekeeper let Sonic in quickly, and Sonic immediately was led inside of the castle and to the steward of the castle, Edgar Prius.

"Greetings, hero," the aged man said. "What has become of the Princess?"

One lie after another, Sonic thought to himself, but if it will save Elise… Then he said aloud, "Dr. Kintobor still has her, but she is safe. Apparently, Dr. Kintobor has no intentions of harming her."

"While that is somewhat relieving, it still leaves Elise in the wrong hands. What do you plan to do, hero?"

Sonic was about to return with "Please, just call me Sonic," but now was not the time for personal feelings. "Dr. Kintobor won't take Elise back to White Acropolis," Sonic said," for he knows that I'll just go back up there and save her again. He has taken her somewhere else."

"Is that so?" said Prius. "This is alarming. Do you know the location?"

"Kind of," Sonic continued. "But it requires a bit of a story."

"Speak on, hero."

"Well, with the help of some friends of mine, we found out that Dr. Kintobor was a former scientist for the realm."

"Indeed," said Prius. "It was surprising that Dr. Kintobor had changed so drastically. He was never quite the same since the shutdown of Project Solaris, but I don't think that's why you are here."

"Not really," Sonic said, and then Sonic thought this was a good time to fish the location of the vault from him. "But I think Dr. Kintobor might have hidden himself and Elise in the place where Project Solaris went on."

At this, the elderly man's eyes flashed slightly, as if recalling an unpleasant memory. "Why do you say that?"

"If I was an evil scientist wanting to hide somewhere no one would think to look, I would hide right under their very noses. Some place so obvious that no one would think to look there because it's just too stupid to think that I'd be right there."

Prius contemplated Sonic's logic in silence. In his mind, Sonic had crossed his fingers, hoping his bluff would pay off. After ten agonizing seconds, it did. "You make a fair case," said Prius. "I am not very knowledgeable on enemy tactics since we have enjoyed peace in Soleanna for centuries. In fact, there has been so much peace that some have noised that a military was not necessary."

Sonic was immediately reminded of a report of the Mobitropolis coup from his Uncle Chuck, while Sonic was residing on South Island at the time. Robotnik (known then as simply Julian) had convinced King Acorn to dissolve the military after the Great War. With the military gone, Julian had successfully usurped the throne and took it for himself, and with Uncle Chuck's roboticizer plans, he proceeded to enslave the entire population of the newly formed Robotropolis. Sonic bit his tongue because it would take too much time to tell Prius of that.

"Anyway, I suppose I should have to tell you, since the Princess is in danger. Yes, I'm not convinced that Kintobor will keep the Princess safe when he gets what he wants. I fear for the Princess' safety. Which is why I will more then tell you the location of the laboratories…I will show you."

Without another word, Steward Prius led Sonic through the castle and down several flights of stairs. Soon, they came to the vault, which turned out to be a large room filled with extensive artifacts and treasure. It reminded Sonic of a museum, and he immediately imagined Rouge having a field day in here. Sonic had to smile at the thought of the white fruit-bat. Sonic knew that Rouge didn't have attractions to him, and he was glad for that. The only thing Sonic really liked about Rouge was that her flirty game was hilarious, since it drew some of the most hilarious emotions out of people.

"Here it is," said Prius suddenly. Sonic looked around the aged man; there in front of them was a large tapestry on the far wall of the vault. Sonic studied the tapestry, and the first thing be saw was a great being in the center, looking like a silver eagle but with great arms and great wings.

"What is that?" Sonic asked.

"Ah, yes," Prius said, smiling. Sonic could tell that he was proud of this tapestry. "This is Solaris, the Flame of Hope. We are very proud that he rules over us with his gentle graces."

Sonic looked up back at the tapestry. He wasn't sure he bought this god-deal, but heck, he's seen some pretty freaky stuff in the nineteen years he had been alive, so this really wasn't new. He looked at the rest of the tapestry, depicting many events; he determined it was a history of Soleanna, constantly being touched up with new histories. Sonic looked at one end and thought he saw a small child that looked like Elise. A single flame rested upon her front, like her soul was on fire. Sonic wasn't much for history, but this tapestry was definitely interesting.

Sonic quickly brought back his mind to the matter at hand. "So, where's the entrance?"

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry," Prius apologized. "Here, come help an old man." Prius stooped down and grabbed onto the bottom part of the tapestry, and Sonic followed suit. As they pulled the tapestry up, they stepped back from the tapestry, so that the heavy tapestry didn't fold up on itself. Sonic could tell that this tapestry was worth more than anything else in this room.

Soon, Sonic couldn't lift it higher anymore being only around three-foot-six, so Prius continued alone. "Look underneath, hero…" Sonic peeked under the tapestry, and nearly flipped. The tapestry was hiding a secret entrance, leading into a dark tunnel.

"That passageway will lead you down into the secret laboratory. I cannot follow you as I have responsibilities for the throne. Good luck, hero; may Solaris smile upon you."

"Likewise," Sonic called back while entering the passageway. As Sonic continued down it, the lights faded to near pitch-black darkness. Prius must have let the tapestry down which banished the light from the passageway. Sonic had to continue by feeling the walls and keep one hand forward, in case there was a turn or a door. Sonic then immediately wished for a flashlight.

Suddenly, Sonic slapped himself on the forehead. "Duh, hedgehog! You have one carried in your stupid glove! Why don't you use your stupid head for once?" He said aloud to himself, and then reached into the back of his glove. His gloves were tight enough so that anything tucked in beyond the cuff would stay there.

Here was a small Power Ring, a miniature version of the Power Rings that were created from a substance of a metallic rock only known as viresite. It was believed that viresite ran on a weaker but similar energy as Chaos Emeralds, but because viresite was so rare, no real study had been done on it. Sonic's Uncle Chuck had successfully devised a way to create generators that would run on viresite, and Knothole was the only one that had it. It would only work if submerged in water (purity of water did not affect operation) and a waste product of the viresite was halo-shaped energy bursts, which rose to the surface of the water where it sat. Once the energy broke the surface, it solidified into matter, becoming a Power Ring.

Sonic didn't really understand all this, but he was thankful he didn't have to. Pulling the Power Ring out let out a bright yellow glow that illuminated everything in the passageway. Now Sonic could go down the halls without having to go slow from darkness.

Soon he came to a door. It was rather unremarkable, but Sonic feared it was locked. Tapping on the door revealed that it was metallic and thick. Doors weren't usually a problem for Sonic to bust into, but the passageway was only around fifty feet long. Sonic couldn't hope to build enough speed in that distance, so busting in wasn't an option. Unwittingly, he tried the lock.

Feeling rather embarrassed as the door swung open, he continued down the halls. Starkly contrasted with the stony passageway, these halls were state-of-the-art, if they weren't covered in dust and who knows what else. Small tapestries lined the walls, and Sonic could tell he was walking on fine carpet. It felt somewhat homey.

A mild thought came to him: Espio had explored this laboratory sometime before 3 PM this afternoon. If Sonic ran into him, it could create a paradox, ruining Sonic's chances. Outside, it was easy to hide, but in these narrow hallways, hiding spots were scarce. Sonic sincerely hoped Espio wasn't here.

The minutes ticked by as Sonic continued down the hall. This laboratory was huge! With no map to find out where he was, he could wander in here a long time. As minutes turned to hours, Sonic started growing antsy. His watch read 1:15 PM. His past-self would be rescuing Elise sometime around 2 PM if he was correct. Kintobor probably high-tailed it back here around 3, so Sonic didn't have two hours to find the EG-Carrier.

Sonic was now exploring the third level of the labs, and Sonic could feel in his ears pressure buildup. He must be deep underground now, and he wondered how far. Sonic's sense of claustrophobia in caves and depths poked his soul a bit, but Sonic was able to shake it off. Eggman's bases went deeper than this, and sometimes you couldn't even tell you were underground. He could deal with this.

As Sonic descended, there were times where the Power Ring's light wasn't needed, for the halls lit with a strange bluish light. He rounded a bend in the hallway and found out why. He looked out one of the few windows and found that instead of a cavern, it was an ocean he looked out of. Sonic stood mesmerized: in front of him was more water then he cared for, but in a different view. It looked like another world here: sea creatures swimming by, the plants dancing in the currents and disturbances of the flow, the bluish light…if it wasn't for the wavy water surface above, Sonic could have scarcely believed it was an open ocean.

Sonic shook himself again. "Concentrate hedgehog, a life is at stake here. Can't go gawking at the slightest distraction like a love-struck puppy right now, can you?" Determinedly, he continued down the hallways.

Fourth level. Fifth level. Nothing was here. If Kintobor was here, he didn't make it obviously. While he was like Robotnik, many ways he was very different. Kintobor seemed to not make things obvious, while Robotnik's ego rivaled Sonic, scorning secrecy if he was on top. It was nearing 2 PM. Time was running out.

Sixth level. Sonic couldn't help but blink. This floor was well lit, causing Sonic's vision to smart from the sudden transition from darkness to light. Also, it was populated. The drones that Sonic was all too familiar which were patrolling up and down the hallway. There were no hiding spots to be seen, but Sonic didn't care. Sonic grinned; now to start some excitement.

Deliberately, he stepped in front of a robot. "Hello! Is this 256 Grouchy Street? I have your liver and ice cream pizza here—" Sonic dodged gunfire. "Awe, come on now! I haven't even asked for the tip yet!" Sonic dodged more gunfire. "Geez, can a guy can't make an honest buck anymore? Oh, well." Sonic spindashed into the robot, sending him down the hall and crashing into others.

By now, alarms started going off, warning of the intruder. "Warning! Warning! Priority hedgehog located on level 6. Detain intruder! Detain intruder!"

Sonic laughed. "Just like old times!"

Scores of robots poured into the hallways, but that didn't stop Sonic. "Oh, baby. It's freaking bowling now!" Revving into a spindash, he plowed through the ranks like bowling pins, severely damaging many drones.

Sonic was very aware how narrow the halls were. This was different then fighting outside, where there was room to dodge. The hallways in here were only wide enough for three, so Sonic's dodging was constricted. Quickly, Sonic resorted to less taunts and more running through enemies. It was for the best, Sonic figured; since a life was on the line and he shouldn't waste time clowning around. Here, Sonic had to smirk; he can see why Sally was always after him during the Robotropolis years.

Each squadron he met with, he plowed through. Apparently, Kintobor didn't think this lab would be infiltrated, so the guard robots were weak and flimsy. Sonic allowed himself to smile; this was a piece of cake compared to Robotropolis.

Sonic kept juicing through the next levels quickly, hoping that the EG-Carrier was here if his hunch was correct. He was half-way through the eighth level when an announcement overrode the warnings of the intruder: "EG-Carrier launch in five minutes. Begin clearing in docking bay." Wordlessly, Sonic sped up.

He had no idea where the hangar bay was, and the ticking countdown added to his frenzy. He loathed countdowns, and he felt like he kept running into one. Sonic pounded the floor with his feet as he ran, desperate to find a door that "looked" like it would lead to a hangar.

Purely by dumb luck, he burst through one rather inconspicuous door and he found himself in a large room! The ceiling was closer to him then the floor below, and he found out that he was on a catwalk, hanging over a hundred feet from the ground! Below and to the front of the room was the EG-Carrier. Sonic felt a breeze kick up as the hangar bay hates opened up. Sonic peered through them and found that it revealed a tunnel of water. Was that the ocean or something else?

Sonic shook himself. "No time to enjoy the view, hedgehog," he said to himself, "Elise needs your help, and you're gawking!"

Sonic felt the catwalk shake underneath him; instinctively he peered down. Sure enough, the EG-Carrier was slowly moving forward, the thrusters blazing out powerfully, pushing the thousand-ton aircraft to fight the immense inertia. Sonic immediately starting running down the catwalk as if there was no tomorrow.

He could see that one of the rear stabilizer fins of the EG-Carrier came very close underneath the catwalk, which started to sway from the disturbance. If he kept up on this catwalk, he could leap on the fin. It looked wide enough for him to land enough…barely; his aim had to be perfect, for if he missed…he would drop right into the jet thrusters. There was no need to imagine the result of that.

Sonic however didn't rethink that plan; there was no time. As the Carrier accelerated, so did Sonic. He had to stay ahead of his target. Up ahead, the catwalk ended abruptly, so it was now or nothing! Sonic leaped over the side, fell twenty feet and landed right on the fin. His aim was dead-on. He looked back and saw that there was only ten feet of the fin left. Sonic grinned in spite of himself, but then realized that if they got outside where the headwinds would slam into him, he might as well have missed. Time to move!

Sonic darted down the fin just as the EG-Carrier hit the water tunnel. There wasn't much time now, but Sonic wasn't the fastest thing alive for nothing! He reached the main body, and frantically searched for shelter. This certainly WAS like being on the Egg Carrier six years ago!

Sonic tripped over a piece of armor, and banged his knee in the fall. Still smarting, he glared at the offending snare and saw that it was a piece of armor that was coming loose. A wild idea came to him. Immediately, Sonic started prying off the armor with all of his strength. Sonic wished Knuckles were here; because Sonic believed that "knucklehead" would have pried this off as if it was a piece of aluminum foil.

Still, Sonic managed. He managed to pry it a half-foot when the EG-Carrier burst out into the sky. The headwinds were particularly strong today, especially since there was nothing to block the winds. Therefore, Sonic was battling both fifty knot winds as well as a stupid piece of armor.

The winds seem to have favored Sonic today, for Sonic was trying to remove the armor-piece in the direction the winds were blowing. Sonic had moved it another few inches, when suddenly heard something big snap suddenly, making him blanch. Sonic watched as the winds caught the armor piece and blasted it off. It in turn flapped around like a sick butterfly, and like a piece of shrapnel it smashed into the starboard engine. It sat there for a few seconds, and then it yanked itself out and disappeared behind the thrusters.

Sonic blinked at this weird turn of events. "Well, that was weird." Then he shrugged, "Oh well, maybe Kinty will not notice." Sonic looked back at where the armor flew off of. Part of the hull came off with it and now an opening was ready for Sonic to crawl in. Needless to say, Sonic took the plunge. Sonic was now aboard the EG-Carrier, and Sonic felt like celebrating, but Elise wasn't saved yet…but her chances were certainly improved. But Elise wasn't onboard yet, so Sonic settled in to wait.

- - - - -

Three figures stood in front of a black stone gate, carved with intricate runes, and one dominating circle circumscribing a pentagram, mixed with other strange symbols and runes. Deep within what used to be Kingdom Valley, where the old castle once stood, the gate stood. From the look of the gate, it appeared to be impassable, as there was no crack in the gate for it to open. On either side of the gate were short arms, as if the gate was truthfully an exaggerated stone throne instead of a gate.

Silver, Blaze and Viper have come to this dark corner of the world after successfully collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds with Chaos Summon. Now they have come to enact the final stage of their goal: destroy Iblis once and for all. However, the gate still needed to be opened, and none had any knowledge how.

The whole thing gave Silver chills. "This is the Gate?"

Viper nodded. "Yes. This is the gate to Iblis' lair. I've heard many names for the realm behind it: the Shadowlands, the World that Never Was, the Dark Realm, the Valley of the Shadow of Death and many more, but they all mean the same thing in the end."

"What's the land like?"

Viper looked at Silver. "No one has been there to describe it. They say looking into it is like looking into the mouth of hell itself…although Silver managed to get a glimpse when he had a hard time summoning the Green and Sky Blue Chaos Emeralds."

Silver shivered suddenly. Some time ago, he had used Chaos Vision to see where each Chaos Emerald was so he could summon it…but when he looked for the Green and Sky Blue ones, not only did he have a hard time grasping them in his mind, but the Yellow Chaos Emerald he was using seemed to be in turmoil, as it kept fading to black. Silver felt a fear that he never felt before. He managed to summon them, but it was hard.

"And Iblis is behind that gate?" Blaze asked.

"Yes…and by no short distance either," Viper added. "We'll need to dive deeply into it to find Iblis…but no one knows what ELSE lies in there."

Silver looked at Viper. "Nothing could be worse than Iblis…right?"

Viper gave a look at Silver, but said nothing. Silver suddenly didn't feel so resolute in his proclamation.

"Whatever is in there doesn't matter," Blaze argued. "If we can't get in there, Iblis has won."

Viper nodded. "Indeed, but we still need to get this open."

All came closer to the gate, which towered over them. Silver sometimes felt that it was bending over them, ready to fall and crush them. He kept catching himself holding a hand up, ready to catch the gate if it did fall.

Blaze cried out to the others, "I found something!"

Viper and Silver quickly came to Blaze. "What is it?" Silver asked.

"This strange stone." Blaze motioned to the flat of the arm where she was. "It's smooth as glass, except that there's a white-runestone carving on it that matches the one on the gate."

Silver looked at it puzzlingly. It truly was smooth, and Silver was afraid to touch it as if it would break underneath his touch.

Viper took a quick glance at the other arm. "No such stone rests here."

Blaze stroked the stone with one finger, admiring its beauty. "It certainly is interesting."

Silver looked at Blaze. He was witnessing one of the few times Blaze's more feminine nature trinkled to the surface. Beauty was rare in this world, and Blaze cherished each time she found it.

Viper by now had rejoined the group, and touched the stone with his left arm. There was the tell-tale sound of scraping as he rubbed the stone with his robot arm. "Certainly is unusual. I don't think this stone is here just for its beauty. Like every rune on this gate, it has a purpose."

Viper experimentally pressed down on the stone. "It's not a button."

Silver looked at it. "I wonder what it's supposed to do…" Ineptly, he reached out and touched the stone with his whole hand.

The stone shone white, causing all to leap back. Retreating off of the steps, they watched as the same white light highlighted the circle and runes. All watched in awe as the gate slowly began to glow. At that moment, there was a massive crack that shook the land. All physically winced from the sound, but kept watching. A crack was forming in the gate itself, starting at the top and snaking its way towards the ground like blood running from a wound. It took an entire minute for it to reach the ground; when it did, the gate began to slide open slowly. Seeping through the cracks was the blackest darkness any of the party had ever seen. Not even a moonless night was this black. Like a heavy mist, it draped downwards to the ground and began spreading, barely an inch off the ground.

"What is that?" Silver looked at the mist, as if it was a disease.

"I don't know…" Viper replied, feeling something of the same as Silver.

The black smoke continued to pour out, melting along the ground. There seemed to be no end to it. Blaze realized this, and figured that if they're going to have to fight Iblis, they will have to wade through a lot of this. Feeling the bravest, she stepped into the mist.

The gas felt very thick, oily, and cold as ice. Despite that it left no residue, it felt like it clung to her like molasses. Suppressing a shudder, she turned to the others. "It doesn't look like it will hurt you, but it might make you…uncomfortable."

Silver kept looking at the mist as if it would grab him and pull him under, but he couldn't keep acting this way since there was a job to do. Eventually, he stepped into the mist like a small child first learning how to swim. "Geez, it feels so…cold."

Viper suddenly felt very ridiculous. Although he was a mere shell of the bounty hunter he was before, he had more strength then this. What could this mist do? After all, Blaze and Silver seem to be fine. Determinedly, he stepped into the mist.

"Seems harmless enough," Blaze said, looking down at it as if it was a creature.

"I don't like it," Silver said, suppressing a shudder of his own. Experimentally, he waved his hand over it, glowing bluish. "I can't even stir it with my psychokinesis. It's like it's not even there!"

"It certainly is a strange gas, and stranger still, the odor is peculiar," Viper said, stooping down to closer inspect the mist.

"Odor?" Blaze said, a hint of confusion in her voice. "I don't smell anything." She turned to the bounty hunter.

Viper looked at Blaze, a quizzical look on his face. "How can you not? It has a very distinctive smell. I haven't smelled anything thing like this in ages. All it reminds me of is rotting flesh, but not that strong…"

"Viper…" Silver said hesitantly as he looked Viper as if he never saw him before. "…I don't smell anything."

Viper's eyes snapped to Silver, just as he snapped to a standing position. "What the hell are you on? How can you not smell this shit!?" He looked wildly at him, feeling his blood boiling. Neither Silver nor Blaze graced Viper a reply. Instead, they were staring transfixed at Viper, almost in shock and growing horror. Viper grew more annoyed by the second. "What!?" he snapped.

Silver swallowed. "Viper…you're bleeding…"

Viper made a small annoyed twitch in his neck. "Come again?"

Blaze pointed at Viper's face. "Viper, your nose! It's gushing!"

Viper instinctively rubbed his nose with his right hand and looked at it. Sure enough, blood was there…a lot of it, and he could tell it was flowing. There was also this blackish-colored matter mixed in. Viper coughed, the blood kept coming. "What the f—" but that was as far as he got, for he blanked out, collapsing to the ground.

Silver and Blaze leaped back in horror. Viper lay on the ground, squirming like he was in his death throws. Blood now began seeping out his ears, tear ducts and mouth, and his thrashing grew more violent, as if he was in abominable pain and it was growing worse.

"What do we do!?" Silver asked, almost shouting in the shock of it all. He kept looking back and forth from Viper to Blaze and back.

"What can we do?" Blaze replied. In contrast to Silver, she held her ground, but like Silver, she had no idea what to do.

Viper's thrashings grew more violent, as if something was attempting to take control of his body and he was fighting it. His left arm was particularly thrashing about, banging on the ground, getting dents against the rocks. Over and over again it pounded, soon pieces were flying off. Silver couldn't stand it, but he had no clue what to do to help Viper.

Suddenly, the robotic arm exploded like dynamite, sending the parts flying like shrapnel. Blaze instinctively ducked, but thankfully Silver had just enough nerve to catch the debris and fling it aside. Silver reluctantly looked back at Viper, expecting lots of blood pouring out the missing arm…but what he saw shocked him, although it was no less disgusting.

The stump that was Viper's left arm started growing, or more specifically, something was growing out of it. Silver felt his stomach churn. The growth was bloodied from Viper's own blood, as if it was being forced through the skin. It came out purplish, but as it grew parts darkened to black, particularly on the outer side. It continued to grow and grow. New growths appeared on the ends, and began to look like clawed fingers. Viper had grown a new arm, one that didn't seem to belong to him. All this takes a while to say, but it took mere seconds, every one of them mortifying.

Blaze continued to watch, fascinated but horrified at this gruesome show. Viper returned to convulsions briefly, but somehow he worked his way to a standing position. He was caked in his own blood, but now a dark purplish aura gassed off of him. Suddenly, Viper stood erect and very still. Blaze had some time to study him. Next to the blood, his body seemed intact. There was no blood coming out of where the new arm has grown from. It was like he healed miraculously. On his chest, there was a spark of the same purplish energy on his chest, right where the heart is. Small tendrils of light snaked from it, reaching towards the extremes. For several agonizing seconds, Viper just stood there. Blaze ventured, "Viper?"

Viper snapped a look at Blaze, who could see that the hunter's eyes were glowing fiercely. Also, his limbs were now lined with dark metal-plated gauntlets, edges sharpened for deadly melee combat. Sparks of electricity would shoot from one part of his body to another. Blaze felt that Viper was about to spring for the attack, and braced herself. However, the unpredictable continued to reign in this venture. Viper suddenly hunched over, his arms drawn in front of him as if he was shielding himself. The light on his chest continued to brighten, until it was no longer purplish. Suddenly, he flung his arms outwards and leaned back with a scream. At the same time, an indigo-colored silhouette of what looked like an alien appeared briefly behind him. It has a head that was wider then its shoulders, dominated by a large mouth. From its snake-like body came two long bony arms, the hands and fingers perfectly matching them. When Viper moved, it moved, when Viper spoke, it spoke too in a wispy, ghost-like voice, but chilling to hear. In two voices, Viper spoke "I am reborn, the mighty power from the core. I come from nothing. I AM nothing, I am eternal…nothing is ETERNAL!!"

Silver, who had just returned from throwing up in response to seeing the grotesque transformation, saw the ghost behind Viper, and cried out. Blaze noticed Silver for the first time. "Silver! What's wrong!?"

Silver didn't answer. He was staring transfixed at the ghost, while all the color drained from his face. No…it couldn't be…it was that demon from his dream!

Viper screamed again, and with him, the ghost roared, a high piercing roar like a screech. Silver and Blaze covered their ears. Silver screamed as well. That thing was here! The demon that scared him worse than Iblis! It was inside Viper! It WAS Viper!

The roar stopped, and the ghost dissipated. Viper looked like as if someone had just released him, and he promptly collapsed to the ground in a moan. Silver continued to hang back, but Blaze ventured forward, unperturbed by what she had seen.

Silver called out to her, "Blaze—".

But Blaze didn't stop. She inspected Viper over, managing to turn him over onto his back. She was shocked to find that all of the blood had evaporated away. As far as she could tell, there wasn't anything different about him, save his arm. Blaze dared to look at the arm, and was shocked to see that it looked just like the arm the past-Viper she encountered had, except instead of burning yellow-orange, it was a deep vivid purple, richer then her own lilac fur.

Blaze noticed that Silver had not joined her. That's odd, she thought. Silver's the curious one, looking over things before I do. Why the switch? Looking back at Silver, she noticed that he was certainly keeping his distance. "What's the matter, Silver?" Blaze sounded almost angry.

"Didn't you see that…thing?" Silver said. "That…ghost?"

Blaze blinked. Silver was afraid of ghosts? They had been fighting a demon for as long as they could remember, and they weren't afraid of it. Why be afraid of ghosts? No, there was more to this. "You're not telling me something, Silver…"

Silver was about to open his mouth, when Viper stirred. Silver stepped a few more steps back. Blaze looked at him with disgust and attended to Viper, who looked like he was suffering from a hangover. "Wha—what happened?"

Blaze helped him to a sitting position, and Viper held his head in both hands, as if it was going to help his headache. Illnesses and disorders were rare in homunculi, so something as simple as a headache was the worse for them. "Don't you remember anything?"

Viper looked at Blaze with weak eyes. Blaze noticed that they were no longer glowing, although the trademark burn of the yellow eyes was still present. "I…remember bleeding…a lot." Viper looked at his hand, and looked at it as if he was expecting something to be there, but wasn't. "Or…I thought I was. Wasn't I?"

Blaze couldn't help but feel amused. The Viper she was presently conversing with was a completely different person than usual. Viper usually never experienced things like confusion and inquiry. The normal Viper found asking so many questions a sign of ignorance, something he would rather die than become. Here, Viper was confused and lost. Biting back a smile, she responded with, "No, you were. And a lot as well…but…" Blaze sobered some. "…other things happened."

Unconsciously, Viper ran his left hand over his face. "Other things? What are you—?" Viper cut himself off. Rubbing his face with his left hand startled him. For nearly two centuries, he had bore a metallic arm. Now, he was bearing this. "Oh my god…" Viper hissed. "It's been so long…" Viper looked around, and noticed Silver hanging back. "What's with you?"

Silver didn't answer. Therefore, Blaze stepped in. "When you grew that arm, something like a ghost appeared behind you and it frightened Silver." She cast a look at Silver. "But I haven't found out why he's scared."

Viper looked at Silver, and wasn't sure how to feel about him. Looking back at Blaze, he asked, "What did it look like?"

Blaze blinked; she wasn't expecting that question. Obediently, she described the silhouette the best she could. Her surprised grew as Viper didn't look surprised. When she finished, she added, "You don't look surprised, so you much know something."

Viper chanced another look at Silver, and then looked back at Blaze. "I should know, but it's a long story." He raised his voice as if he was trying to make himself heard to someone else. "But if someone else is going to learn anything or listen in, he can't hang back all the way out there, quivering like a lab rat on a caffeine trip, do I make myself clear!?"

Silver knew that Viper was talking about him. What had happened still shook him, but Blaze was growing disgusted of him for his supposed cowardice. Reluctantly, he joined the group. Sarcastically, Viper continued. "Now that everyone's here, I guess we can get this started:

"Doubtless, you've been told that there are seven Chaos Emeralds, and that's what I had told you as well. In truth, there is another: an eighth Chaos Emerald, the Black Chaos Emerald. Despite it being called a Chaos Emerald, it doesn't act like any of the others. A lot of the time, it possesses the user of it. Many people were stupid enough to try to use it, and all perished after the Emerald consumed their minds. One day, four of us, including the black hedgehog known as Shadow and myself as well, had stumbled deep into the inner sanctum of a network of caves where the Black Chaos Emerald was resting. We didn't know what it was at the time, and Shadow and I came closer to it. Somehow, it sensed us, and it fluxed right there and then.

"Both of us were corrupted by its power. Both of us woke up in a laboratory of Dr. Robotnik's, someone you don't know, and we really didn't know what happened. Shadow had it worse. His corruption wasn't physical, but mental. Some barrier was blocking him from accessing his memory, so he could barely remember his name.

"I may have said Shadow had it worse, but it all depends on how you look at it. My corruption was physical. Being someone of my species, I was a lot more resilient in fighting it. Any normal person corrupted the same way would have died very shortly later, but my body was built for things like this, so I continued to live on…for at least half a year. What I didn't know was that it was getting worse, and by the end of its course, I was plainly infected. It was destroying my cellular structure, but I still lived on, although in agony. My species, called homunculi, have an ability to go into what we call 'Prime Mode,' where we are stronger, faster and meaner. Some look like they lose their minds. It's brief, but deadly. The corruption soon spread into that, and when I would initiate Prime Mode, the corruption roared to life. When that happened, some…thing would take over my mind when I fought. I could see it in my mind. That's what you saw, and the only time he reveals himself is when I go into what I called Corrupted Prime Mode. The corruption nearly killed me, but after the worst of it, I survived, and the corruption quieted. I thought it was destroyed from within, but I always felt that the taint of it was still there. The fact that this arm," Viper held up his left arm, "is glowing purple is proof that the taint IS there. While the corruption can no longer kill me…it still has some hold. This mist…must have triggered it within me. The good news is that my arm is back, so I can be at my strongest…but the bad news is because of the taint, I could go into a killing frenzy."

Blaze cut in. "When you were in that mode just now, you said…'I am reborn, the mighty power from the core.' Do you know anything about that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Viper sighed. "The best theory I could come up with is that it's another form of Mephiles, but I can't prove any of that." Viper looked at Silver, who still seemed antsy about being so close to Viper. "You obviously need to say something."

Silver gulped. "Well…I'm kind of ashamed of this, being scared…but when Blaze and I were back in the past…I had this…vision. In it…I saw this darkness, and out of it reached this multi-clawed hand. What frightened me was that the arm of that ghost looked exactly like the arm of that thing I saw in my dream. It scared me to death."

Viper leaned in on Silver. "Did it say anything?"

"It spoke," Silver said. "But I couldn't understand it. It was some kind of Dark Speech."

Viper leaned back, digesting this. He then shook his head. "Just another piece of the puzzle."

At that moment, the ground rumbled underneath them. It wasn't strong enough to sway any of the ruined buildings, but it was felt by all. It soon died away to stillness. "I think we're running out of time," said Viper. "We'd better get a move on." Viper stood up. "But I must warn you. If you see me go into Corrupted Mode again…run. I can't tell friend from foe when my mind is gone. If you see it happen, run. Don't fight, just run." Viper looked towards the gate and began walking towards it.

Blaze and Silver hung back and looked at each other. "Do you think we can trust him?" Blaze asked Silver.

"Me?" Silver asked. "It looks like you already answered that when you helped him. I know you trust him…and…I should trust him." Silver looked down. "I'm sorry for being a coward."

Blaze looked at Silver, and she felt bad for being disgusted at Silver. "I didn't know what was bugging you, so it shocked me when you hung back…angered me even. Silver…next time something is bugging you…please tell me. I'm here to help you, not to criticize you."

Silver looked up at Blaze. "Thanks, Blaze." Silver then looked at the gate, and Viper was just about to enter it. "We'd better get going then. We have a job to do."

"Yes…it's time to finish this."

In one accord, all three strode towards the gate and entered. Right when they did, the gate closed behind them, refusing so no crack could be seen. There was no turning back now…

This is it: the final battle.